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No theatre company
has been floundering more dramatically lately than the Royal Shakespeare
Company, rocked by crises largely of its own making as the current
artistic director Adrian Noble set out elaborate plans to
reinvent the company.
Among these, he
announced his intention to demolish the company's current Stratford
home and rebuild a "Shakespearean theatre village" in its place;
to many, this smacked more of aspirations to build a theme park
rather than a serious theatre company.
Cancellations
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| Outgoing
artistic director Adrian Noble |
He also cancelled
the RSC's long-standing residency at the Barbican Centre, announcing
that the company would be seen in other venues in London instead,
like the recent Roundhouse season - or by establishing a starry
West End presence (a policy which reaches fruition with the transfer
this week of Much Ado About Nothing from Stratford to the Haymarket).
But no sooner did
Mr Noble ensure his own pension fund was secure after he directed
the West End musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang than he announced his
plans to give up its artistic reigns.
Candidates
There was, for
once, a shortage of candidates willing to pick them up. Of the four
associate directors who helped to run the company with Noble, the
most experienced, Michael Attenborough, had already announced
that he was jumping ship to the Almeida earlier this year, to take
over there from Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid.
Like Noble, Steven
Pimlott (another well-regarded associate) recently shepherded
a West End musical, Bombay Dreams, to triumph at the Apollo Victoria,
but was also out of the running after jumping ship to the less high
profile Chichester Festival Theatre, together with Ruth Mackenzie
and Martin Duncan.
The internal choice
therefore came down to a two-horse race between the two remaining
associates, Michael Boyd and Gregory Doran.
Boyd - the 47
year-old founding director of Glasgow's Tron Theatre and an Olivier
Award winner last year for his RSC History plays - has won out over
the more flamboyant possibility of Doran, who has never run a theatre
but is professionally and personally connected to one of the RSC's
foremost actors, Antony Sher.
Reaction
Former RSC actor
David Suchet is disappointed they've not brought in someone
from outside:
"I'm not sure if
someone from within can be as effective as someone from without.
I was hoping it would be someone who can bring fresh insight to
the company. If the existing board is still there and demands that
the new director continues in the ways that we have been going,
then the job is going to be almost impossible."
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| Michael Attenborough
ruled himself out of the running |
Michael Attenborough
concurs that the road ahead is difficult:
"Michael
(Boyd) faces a gargantuan and frightening financial position. He
has to heal and strengthen a deeply worried and confused company.
Repairing the company will take a while, nobody should expect miracles
overnight."
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